Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) technology is common today in larger medical institutions worldwide, and has led to huge benefits in the practice of medicine. A significant factor impeding further increased use of this versatile imaging technology is the typically high cost of both purchase and maintenance of MRI systems.
The costs associated with the design and manufacture of such systems are due mainly to the need to generate large and very homogeneous static magnetic fields, as well as the need to generate gradient fields for imaging with such systems. Such large static fields are currently required to obtain high image quality and resolution.